Bernard Salt

VIC

Speaker available for hire, based in Victoria

Bernard Salt is a Partner of KPMG. Not only has he established an enviable profile within corporate Australia as an adviser, but his commentary on consumer, cultural and demographic trends is highly respected.

Through his work, Bernard Salt has established an enviable reputation as an advisor to leading property investors and developers on matters relating to market demand. He is however best known to Australian business for his commentary in the media on the business implications of demographic and social change.

A columnist with 'The Australian' and 'Wish' magazine, Bernard Salt is also the author of the popular best-selling book 'The Big Shift: Welcome to the Third Australian Culture' and his 2006 release, 'The Big Picture'.

Bernard Salt is engaged by diverse corporations to review market trends and to advise on business acquisitions and expansions. He is frequently quoted in the Australian media and has appeared on numerous radio and television programs including 'Business Sunday', 'A Current Affair', '60 Minutes', 'Today Tonight', 'Today Show', and 'Nightline'.

Informative, witty, incisive and ‘very human’, Bernard Salt's style is a unique blend of substance and humour. He can provide a lively and dynamic exposé of cultural change and demographic shifts, focusing on the outlook and implications for business over the next two decades.

Typical topics and areas include:

* Retaining Generation Y staff

* Evolution of Australia's three consumer cultures

* Sponge cities and regional growth

* Generation X as agents of social change

* The Man Drought and the Fella Filter

* The Seachange Shift

* Your place as the new workplace

* Global demographic trends from US, New Zealand and Asia

* Jobs and the 'brave new world' of technology

* The rise of retirement and portfolio lifestyles

* Demographic and social change across Australian cities

* Australia on the Move

In 'The Big Picture', Bernard Salt poses some big questions about social change. When did it become socially acceptable, or at least not unacceptable, for a young couple to have children out of wedlock?

The answer is at some stage during the 1990s.

What events and value-shifts have had the most influence on us as a nation? Can the Fella Filter save us from the man drought? Is food the new sex for the over-40s? What is the chaperone syndrome? At what age do you cease being young?

Bernard Salt tackles these and other social and demographic questions facing the Australian nation. 'The Big Picture' interprets the factors that have a bearing on where we live, when we marry, and how we will work.

The motivational forces that shape the Australian community are revealed under Bernard Salt's unique scrutiny and analysis.

An entertaining and persuasive speaker, Bernard Salt travels Australia extensively and is equally at home speaking about suburban growth in Dubbo and Busselton, as he is talking about the opportunities for business in the hip-and-happening empty-nester residential markets of inner Sydney and Melbourne.

Bernard Salt has particular expertise in the consumer market and cultural changes. He attributes recent trends - and even fashions - to the shifting and shuffling of numbers from one stage of the life cycle to the other. The Age describes his style as “part stand-up comedian, part number-crunching economics….”

In demand as a speaker, Bernard Salt balances an increasing number of engagements with running a national consulting practice from Melbourne. Bernard Salt holds a Bachelor of Education and Master of Arts degrees in economic geography, and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Basing his presentation on hard-edged numbers, Bernard Salt reflects on the most recent demographic, business and social information available. His research into almost every market in Australia enables him to talk authoritatively about trends in any part of the continent, as well as the cultural differences within regional Australia.

Bernard Salt’s style is a unique blend of humour, informed commentary, insight, wit, style and incisive analysis.His 'very human' presentations are fast paced and are specifically tailored to the client and the client's particular industry.